Dark homes add to winter blues – survey
November 2017

Half of UK homeowners feel that they do not have enough daylight in their lives during the winter months and more than a quarter blame the design of their homes for not letting in enough daylight, according to the results of a survey by Velux.

The lack of exposure to natural daylight is due to increased reliance on spending time indoors in the winter. The survey reveals that almost half (43%) of homeowners typically spend two hours a day more outside at weekends during the summer than they do during the winter.

Given the amount of time we spend at home during these months, we become much more reliant on our homes offering access to natural daylight. However,(27% of homeowners do not feel that their homes have been adequately designed to let in enough natural daylight from the outside.

One in five (22%) are keen to do something about it, by making improvements to their home through measures such as converting loft space, brightening up darker spaces, redecorating with brighter colours, building an extension with roof windows or retrofitting windows into existing extensions.

Product manager Grant Sneddon said: “For many of us in the UK, putting the clocks back for daylight saving time can be associated with a dip in mood as we prepare for the winter ahead. However, as our research shows, we still don’t make the most of natural daylight when it comes to designing our homes. This daylight factor is even more significant during the winter months, when we tend to spend much more time indoors. However, there are many modifications we can make to our homes to help bring the outside in, and provide homes with access to natural daylight which can help to beat the winter blues.”